The Shadows of the Fox
by TheUnknownUser2
Summary: The Reaper, a dangerous assassin that has never missed his mark. After a raid on his current safe house he is approached by Professor Ozpin to go to Beacon. What adventures will he partake in, how will he adjust to a stable life and most of all, how does he know about Ozpin's little game of chess? Spoilers, OCxRubyxNeo, Very powerful!OC for addoption
1. Prologue

**So here we are again at the beginning of a new story in a new world this time in the world of RWBY I know as a fact I want to add a pairing into this story but I don't know if I'll do a harem I'll include a list at the bottom and anyone who decides to write a review can vote for what they want, if it ends up as a single pairing it will be with Ruby so she's your guarantee. So yeah, this will be an OC-centric story and I will warn you now, some characters will die not all of them being in the original show and if there's something that I feel needs explaining I'll add an explanatory chapter to clear it up, otherwise feel free to PM me or leave your questions in the reviews, if I see the same question asked more than once I'll actually respond to it up at the top of the next chapter. Anyways onto the first chapter of The Shadowed Fox (Please help me get a better name if you don't like it) Oh and it may be short; it's just the prologue.**

 **I don't own RWBY Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth (?) do.**

"Talking"

" _Thinking"_

" _ **Announcement"**_

" **Menacing Voice"**

It was a dark and stormy night in Vale yet hundreds of people had gathered to the same spot, each and every one of them was a huntsman or from the police and they were all there for the same reason, they had tracked down the notorious Reaper to this building, the Reaper was an assassin known around the world for having never failed to make his mark and anyone who's seen them has been promptly killed so they have no idea what the Reaper actually looks like except that he carries a scythe as a weapon, hence the name.

While the majority of the group wishes to imprison the assassin, some wanted to kill him for one reason or another. All except one, a tall grey haired man with grey rimmed glasses and a cane. He is Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon academy. He was actually there to provide an offer to the assassin due to his belief that the Reaper hasn't actually taken any contracts and has a reason for why he's doing what he's doing, so it almost made him smile when they broke in and saw a young boy with spiked black hair that's tied into a ponytail at the back wearing black pants, combat boots and gloves as well as a black hoodie and a skull mask. He was surprised however to see that the boy had two fox ears and 9, yes 9 fox tails present on him before they suddenly vanished, as if they were never there in the first place.

He was also carrying a large double headed scythe with an obsidian colored blade and strange letters glowing on the blades and two swords on either of his hips. This young boy was obviously the Reaper, and he was ready to fight.

Everything was silent before a moment later one of the head police fell into his own shadow near the rear but that was enough to distract the entire party for long enough so that the Reaper could begin his assault.

It was a slaughter, the police were the first to be killed in various ways be it from being stabbed by their shadows or being bisected by the menacing scythe that took no prisoners. The huntsmen faired a bit better and lasted a good ten seconds each before they had their guts spilled as well, Ozpin being the last of the party was more than astonished when the boy somehow managed to get behind him as well, only to have the slash parried by his cane. Or so he thought. The Reaper suddenly twisted his scythe and split the two blades apart on their separate handles.

Using the second scythe that was now in his left hand he twisted his body around the cane and slashed at Ozpins neck. The headmaster had just moved out of the way enough to get a small cut on his throat just under his Adam's apple.

Ozpin took this as his cue to stop the fight "Young boy, I have an offer for you." He said placing his cane on the ground, which seemed to have the desired effect as the boy stopped his attacks.

"What do you want?" the Reaper asked, his voice was somehow smooth yet masculine despite its lack of use. The assassin knew that no one makes an offer without an ulterior motive, that's just how he had lived up until that point.

"Simple, I don't think that you're actually an evil person and I know you have a reason for why you're an assassin so I was going to offer you a clean slate." Ozpin said with an unnoticeable smile.

The young boy seemed to think about it for a second but then replied "What would you get out of this Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon." His voice was very suspicious at the moment yet displayed very little else.

The gray haired man flinched slightly but continued on "So you know who I am? Good, that makes this easier. In exchange I want you to attend my school and, whenever it becomes necessary, help me take on the darkness of this world."

The assassin stayed silent for a moment before his scythes became pitch black and disappeared along with his mask revealing the face of a boy no older than 17 with a deep jagged scar spanning from just above his right eye, over the bridge of his nose and then down to just under his left eye.

"You have… silver eyes…" Ozpin said in thought. It was true the boy had pure silver eyes.

The boy grinned at this showing his sharper than average canines "Indeed I do, and I know why that interests you~" He said in an uncharacteristically singsong voice that made Ozpin's eyes widen slightly "The name's Shadow, Shadow Vulpis. Pleasure to be attending your school. As for my reason… let's just say the black queen should have been white in your game." The Reaper now known as Shadow told the headmaster with a grin.

 **There we go, so that's the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of the story with no specific name. I encourage you to check out my other stories. But anyways if this story gets voted as a harem it will consist of Ruby Rose (Main), Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Neo and maybe Nora (up to you). Leave a review Cya!**


	2. Secrets and Valentines

**Okay so here is the second chapter of the Shadowed Fox (Seriously, If you have a better Idea for the name tell me) So far I've been trying to figure out exactly what it is that I want to do for pairings, I'm kinda leaning towards a single pairing due to PMs but depending on how the story goes I may end up doing something else. For everyone wondering why an assassin was more or less acting like a child… He won't always be like that, as long as the situation is serious so will he, and also one or two of his eccentricities will appear in this chapter so look forward to that. Oh and also the only reason he got the drop on Ozpin in their little fight was because Ozpin didn't want to hurt Shadow, in an actual fight I don't know who would win… Anyways onto the story!**

 **I don't own RWBY Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth (?) do.**

"Talking"

" _Thinking"_

" _ **Announcement"**_

" **Menacing Voice"**

Ozpin could only stare at the young assassin in shock. _"How does he know about that? More importantly which side is he on?"_ He thought as Shadow began packing up his things.

"If you're wondering how I know about that, it's simple. I almost became that bitches 'knight'. Good thing I found out what she had done otherwise it might've been your pawns that I was assassinating…" Shadow said with a small grin on his face seeing that he was able to break the normally unshakeable Professor Ozpin's walls.

Ozpin took a moment to respond "Indeed that was a very fortunate event, but might I ask how you knew I was involved in it?"

Shadow looked at him with a deadpan look on his face "A dusty old crow got drunk one night and spilled the beans to everyone at a bar, you're lucky everyone just thought he was insane." He replied making the headmaster sigh in annoyance.

"Of course he would… Ah I see you're ready to go." He said noticing the bags on the assassin's back.

"Yup also I can see how curious you are, yes I am indeed a Faunus, a rare 9 tailed fox, and as far as I know I'm the only one. You can't see my tails or my ears because of my semblance." Shadow said as he double checked the building for anything he might've forgotten.

Shadow and Ozpin began their walk out of the warehouse and towards the police station that Glynda Goodwitch, Beacon's headmistress, had brought a young vigilante to in silence, which left Ozpin to his own thoughts _"I have so many questions for that young boy but for now I have to just leave it to idle curiosity. Let's see what I do know… He is an extremely effective assassin, has met with Salem herself, has been killing her pawns, has been in contact with Qrow in the past, he can somehow read me, he's about 17 so a year younger than everyone at the school, he is a very rare Faunus, his semblance seems to be a form of shadow manipulation that can even be used to hide physical things indefinitely or attack people physically, he managed to get a hit off on me… that reminds me I should hide that from Glynda… and he has silver eyes. I'll just have to wait for him to tell me anything else, although I wonder what he found out about that made him turn down Salem's offer?"_ Ozpin's musings however were cut short when they arrived at the station which drew a strange look from his current companion.

"Ozpin? What are we doing at a police station? You aren't handing me over to the Popo are you?~" Shadow said with a glare.

While he said it in a sing-song voice Ozpin could see the underlying threat present in those words, it promised suffering so he was quick to correct the situation. "No, no, nothing of the sort. We're actually her to talk to someone who has something slightly in common to you, not the criminal part in case you were wondering."

Shadow's glare lightened immediately after he found there was no lie in his voice so he nodded and followed Ozpin into the building. Shadows eyes instantly found their way to the girl sitting in a chair behind a gray desk, in fact the entire room was gray.

The girl was wearing a short black dress (Combat Skirt! someone screams into Shadow's thoughts) with red lacing in the front as well as red frills at the bottom with a black utility belt and a red hooded cloak. She had black hair that slowly shifted to a dark red near the tips and was eating cookies with her eyes closed, seemingly in pure bliss.

Ozpin was dragged out of the room by Glynda, presumably to explain why he had brought someone with him so Shadow took the chance to introduce himself to the girl "Hello! My name is Shadow Vulpis, it's a pleasure to meet you~! Oh I heard you were a vigilante and I was wondering… whatkindofweapondoyouhaveisitbigorsmalldoesithaveanymovingparts?" He spoke so quickly at the end that had it been anyone else he was talking to they wouldn't have understood a word of what he said.

The girl in front of him had the decency to at least swallow the mouthful of cookies she had before answering "HI! My name is Ruby Rose, and as for my weapon… It's a big scythe that has a standby form, its standard scythe form as well as a custom .45 caliber high impact sniper rifle, I call her the Crescent Rose." The now identified Ruby said with glee, letting the assassin see her eyes for the first time. He immediately noticed that they were silver too but he just left it at that.

"Wait really?! You use a scythe too? Although I only use or even show mine when I have no other option my scythe can split in two and has collapsible blades on either end of the shaft. While I prefer my scythe I also know my way around a sword. That's why I have these babies~." He said patting the two swords at his hips before he continued "I call `em the Chaos Bringers. They have two opposite facing blades with a gap between the two that functions as a barrel for their built in teslas although not the normal kind mine actually uses shadow lightning which is effectively giving a shadow mass and letting it run rampant to create a beam of energy to blast the living hell out of something. The eyes in the guard aren't actually decorative, they are what destabilizes the shadows I create for the guns. Of course I made all of them myself, pretty cool right~?" By the time Shadow was finished his explanations for his weapons, the other scythe wielder had stars in her eyes for multiple reasons.

The first and foremost, is definitely his weapons themselves, second would be that he was another weapon maniac and third was that she found another person who was able to use a scythe.

Just as Ruby was about to respond Ozpin walked in with a smile on his face. Shadow turned to him and said "If you're about to do what I think you are then I think I'll really enjoy my time at Beacon, even if I'm a year early…" That also surprised Ruby. Apparently he was only a year older than her.

Ozpin's words however caught her off guard "So how would you like to go to Beacon miss Rose?"

The expression on her face made Shadow burst into laughter while she just nodded dumbly.

3 Days later…

On a bullhead flying towards Beacon academy Ruby and her sister Yang Xiao Long were looking around.

Yang was a rather attractive girl with long, wavy blonde hair, purple eyes and large… assets. She was dressed in rather provocative clothing; a small brown leather jacket that showed her stomach, a yellow undershirt that accentuated her bust and a pair of short shorts that showed off her long legs. She was also wearing black fingerless gloves that reach halfway up her forearm as well as brown leather boots that climb to just underneath her knees. Yang was a, how to say this… excitable person…

"I can't believe my little sister is going to Beacon with me! You got in two years early too, everyone will think you're the bee's knees!" she said as she was crushing her sister in a hug.

Ruby for her part looked extremely embarrassed "But I don't want anyone thinking I'm the bee's knees, I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees. I don't want people thinking that I'm special…" she said looking down.

"Well that's not going to happen, I mean only a really special person could keep up with me talking about weapons after all~." A smooth voice said from behind her "Hi Ruby!"

Ruby turned around to see Shadow standing there with a smile on his face, his clothing however had changed. Now he was wearing a midnight black trench coat that was left open with a crimson shirt underneath it, which was tucked into his black pants, instead of the hoodie he was wearing the last time they met. "Hi Shadow! This is my sister Yang!" Ruby said gesturing to the blonde.

"Ah, hello Yang my name is Shadow Vulpis, I met Ruby whenever she was being interrogated by Glynda. Although, if I may ask, why do you two look so different from each other?" Shadow was genuinely curious about it.

Yang saw no harm in telling him so she replied "Well that's because we don't have the same mother. Ruby's mom's name was Summer while mine was Raven." Shadow was surprised at the names she gave him but he was able to hide it well.

"Wait, Raven Branwen? I feel bad for you that girl is a complete-" Shadow didn't get the chance to finish because Yang had pushed him straight into a wall, weapons drawn and pointing directly at his face.

" **How do you know her?"** She asked in a menacing voice.

While Shadow knew he could take her, he also knew he didn't want to get in trouble already so he just sighed in defeat "I met her about 5 years ago while I was training against some Beowolves, I had just finished killing my last one but then an alpha showed up. I tried fighting it and I actually managed to cut off one of its arms before it knocked me to the ground, that's when Raven showed up. She took that thing out like it was nothing! So I begged her to train me which she did, but I learned her values are shot to shit. She lives by the rules 'If it's not strong, it's dead' around two years ago I left her little 'flock' and went back out into the world, I have no idea where she is now but I honestly don't want to. My suggestion if you want to find her, don't she'll find you when she thinks you're ready."

When Shadow finished his tale Yang let go of him and returned to watching the world go by just outside in silence. Ruby looked at him apologetically, which he waved off, and offered him a hand up. But once he was up he noticed just how close he was to Ruby and took a quick step back, both of them sporting blushes on their faces.

"Hey Shadow, I just noticed that your, well, shadow has ears and is that 9 tails?" Ruby questioned while looking at his shadow just to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

"Huh? Oh yeah did I not mention I just hide those from plain sight? I'm a nine-tailed fox Faunus, probably the last of my kind." He responded "And don't even think about trying to pet me or scratch behind the ears, I don't hide my fangs." He said noticing her hand reaching towards his head.

She made an adorable pout and just said "Fine." Coincidentally the ship arrived immediately after she said that and a boy ran past them looking like he was about to be sick.

"Any ways I'll see you later Rubes I'm going to go take a look around… and potentially *Ahem* borrow some weapons~ Bye!" and just like that Shadow was off.

A few minutes and an explosion later Shadow was strolling around the campus, not really paying attention when he bumped into someone, knocking them to the ground in the process. "I'm sorry I wasn't paying attentio-" Shadow began but stopped once he saw who he had run into. She was a beautiful girl with long silver hair, milky white skin and light green eyes. She was wearing a light blue 'combat skirt' styled to look almost like a lily. On her waist was a short sword's handle with a trigger on it, indicating a secondary feature. She was also smiling as though nothing could ever go wrong.

"No problem. My name's Sylvia Valentine, what's yours?" The now named Sylvia asked politely with a melodic voice that made Shadow's spine tremble.

"Shadow, Shadow Vulpis, It's a pleasure to meet you, even if the circumstances are unfortunate." He said then looked to her sword "What does the trigger on your sword do?"

Sylvia looked at him for a second before she replied "It's a pleasure to meet you to! As for the trigger… it undoes the mag-locks on my blade and lets it extend to about 10' if you include the chain, in other words it's a snake sword, I'm assuming the trigger on your swords aren't just for show either?"

The assassin let out a laugh while shaking his head "No, they are the triggers for the teslas I built into them to give myself some ranged weaponry because otherwise I wouldn't" He said as the pair continued walking.

The two of them had gotten to know each other pretty well and Shadow would honestly call her his best friend and had even developed a little bit of a crush on her… although that went both ways as well Sylvia had found him to be smart, funny, strong and admittedly handsome. As they were walking towards the entrance ceremony they managed to run into Sylvia's siblings, Lazarus and Eve.

Lazarus was a well-built man about 6' 7" he had short black hair in contrast to his sisters' white, dark skin and the same light green eyes as both of his sisters. He wore a full set of armor save for the helmet.

Eve on the other hand had short white hair, slightly tanned skin from the time she spent outside and light green eyes. She was wearing an armored version of Sylvia's clothes although she wasn't quite as attractive to Shadow.

After they were all introduced to each other they continued on their way to the ceremony. "I'll keep this brief… You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." Ozpin said just as the group of four walked into the room and walked off the stage.

Glynda then took up the mike "You will go to the ballroom tonight, your initiations will start tomorrow, be ready. You are dismissed." She then followed to wherever Ozpin had left too earlier.

Shadow turned towards the Valentine siblings "Well guys I suppose that's that. There are some things I need to talk to Ozpin about so I'll see you guys tomorrow, maybe we'll end up on the same team." He said with a smile.

Sylvia was the one who answered him "That would be awesome! I'll see you tomorrow." After she said that though she quickly pecked Shadow on the cheek and walked off with her own family, leaving the assassin to just stand there and gawk at what just happened for a few moments before he collected himself and snuck off to talk to his headmaster.

It didn't take Shadow long to locate his headmaster who was currently sitting in his office with his ever present coffee cup, although right now it wasn't coffee that filled it. "Ozpin, what happened? I haven't known ya all too long but this isn't normal, even a normal student could tell you were upset right now…" Shadow said while taking a seat across from the older man.

Ozpin didn't as much as glance up from his desk before he answered "Someone attacked Amber, they put her in a comatose state and stole half of her power… _She's_ getting the upper hand, and I don't like it one bit…" His voice sounded empty, like it had simply lost all of the meaning it held that isn't however what enraged Shadow to the point where he smashed Ozpin's desk.

" **Where is she?"** The sheer power in the young man's voice was enough to make Ozpin tremble **"Where's Amber? Where's my cousin?!"**

Ozpin's eyes widened in shock _"His cousin is the fall maiden? Why didn't she ever tell me about him?"_ he thought while unknowingly speaking the second part out loud.

Shadow turned to the headmaster "She probably thought I was dead, n **ow take me to her."** He said in a commanding tone to which the older man just nodded dumbly to as he led the assassin to the bottom floor of the academy.

A couple minutes later the two reached the basement where, in a glass pod, lies the current fall maiden, Amber. Her body was covered in burns as well as small cuts, giving her cousin a good idea of who did this to her "Cinder Fall…" he muttered just loud enough for Ozpin to hear him "I'm going to slaughter that fucking bitch the next time I see her. Nobody, **Nobody hurts my family not again!"** He looked to Ozpin "I'm going to bed, I need to cool my head, you need to realize this isn't your fault and I need to be prepared for my initiation tomorrow. Goodnight." With that said he walked away to join the remaining students at the ballroom.

With Ruby and Sylvia

In the ballroom Ruby was sitting down in the dark after being yelled at once again by Weiss Schnee, unknowingly right next to Sylvia and her family when the two of them noticed a VERY angry looking Shadow storming into the room and climbing up the wall and onto one of the support beams for the roof where he just stretched out and went to sleep.

"Shadow…" the two girls spoke in unison before they turned to each other. "Wait, you know Shadow?" the two of them said at the same time yet again before they blinked and giggled softly.

They stayed like that for a couple minutes before Ruby extended her hand "Hi, my name's Ruby Rose. What's yours?" She inquired.

"Sylvia Valentine, it's a pleasure to meet you Ruby. So how do you know Shadow?" she asked while she was thinking _"Please don't say girlfriend, please don't say girlfriend, please don't say girl-"_

Sylvia was brought out of her musings when Ruby answered "Well I met him in a police station after I tried to take down a criminal. He came in with Ozpin and well we became friends over a talk about weapons." She remembered fondly, he was her first friend other than her sister at Beacon and a fellow weapon nut at that.

The silver haired girl sighed out of relief "Well I met him shortly before the entrance ceremony, we talked, joked and then I introduced him to my brother and sister, Lazarus and Eve. I've kinda got a crush on him, heh heh. We parted ways whenever he said he wanted to talk to headmaster Ozpin about something, I assume that's what had him all riled up" She said as she took notice of the time on her scroll "Well it's gotten pretty late I'll see you tomorrow Ruby, sleep well."

Ruby smiled at her "Of course, you too."

With that the two girls went to sleep, Shadow however was having a nightmare.

 _Shadow's Nightmare_

 _It was late at night and the town of Sombra, just outside of Vale, was lighting up the forest for miles. But it wasn't doing so by the normal means however, no the entire town was set ablaze while everyone was asleep._

 _There was however one person who wasn't in the town at the time, but that was because he had been unknowingly kidnapped by the very same person who started the blaze. The kidnaped person was a young boy with 9 fluffy black tails with white tips as well as fox ears with the same coloration. His silver eyes were reflecting the light of the fires as he followed his 'savior'._

 _The kidnapper was a young woman with dark hair and yellow eyes. She was wearing a long red dress as she led him to his home to 'checkup' on the boy's parents._

 _Yes indeed, these people are Shadow Vulpis and Cinder Fall._

 _As the two approached the future assassin's home that things started to get even worse than they already were for the young boy. As the two arrived Cinder immediately began sporting a sadistic grin as she put out her hand and produced a stream of fire from her hands while forcing the boy to watch and listen to his parents screams with terrified eyes as she burned down his home._

 _Using all the strength he had left, Shadow punched the girl in the gut, making her let go, and ran off into the woods, where he would meet Raven later on. Coincidentally this day became a large mark on history and would remain that way as the great Sombran fire, the first 'natural' disaster that killed over 1000 people, and left no known survivors._

 **So there you go, a bit of backstory, some of Shadow's family tree, I'll explain how this is possible in a later chapter, as well as the starting of a relationship with Sylvia. No, Sylvia will not be in the final pairing, single or otherwise. But I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please leave your request for pairings and seriously, someone drop a better title for this story I have no idea what to call it… Also huge props to anyone who can see the little hint I dropped to the future of the story in this chapter, just remember I'm sometimes rediculously convoluted in my hints, this is one of them... Cya!**


	3. Speed explanation (my interpretation)

**Hey everyone, this is not an actual chapter but it is an explanation of how Ruby's semblance is going to work. To begin while her semblance may be described as speed, I believe it's actually basic time manipulation meaning what she's actually doing is compressing the time surrounding her to give the illusion of speed but in reality she's going just as fast as everyone else just in a separate pocket of time, which is relative after all.**

 **As for the whole freezing the Grimm dragon thing in season 3, well that's what actually got me thinking about this, it lead me to believe that what "the power of the silver eyes" actually is, is pushing your semblance to it's absolute limits without draining your aura any faster than normal. So what I think happened with the dragon isn't that she compressed the time around herself, because then everyone would have frozen, but she had inadvertently expanded the time around her enemies alone thus slowing them down while letting everyone else continue as normal.**

 **This little theory of mine will be implemented in this story so this is more or less to prepare everyone for something that may be cannon or complete bull shit but to me it makes sense... As for how the silver eyes will effect Shadow's semblance... You'll just have to wait and see!**

 **Cya in the next chapter**


	4. A Dance with Blades

**Okay so in my little explanation of semblances last chapter it was brought to my attention of how Ruby managed to create the tornado. I believe this was accomplished because the air she was running around in was actively disturbed by the condensing of time. It's also the reason why she can see things perfectly well while she's running but anyone else sees a blur, they aren't part of the condensed part of time so for them it isn't slowed down, they're just getting dragged at whatever speed she happens to be going. As for Shadow… just read the chapter to find out about that one.**

 **I don't own RWBY Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth (?) do.**

"Talking"

" _Thinking"_

" _ **Announcement"**_

" **Menacing Voice"**

The next morning

Everyone in the ballroom was sleeping peacefully. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and most of all, it would be the day where quite a few of the people in the room would be joining Beacon Academy to train and become hunters and huntresses. Thus everyone was sleeping soundly, well almost everyone…

Shadow woke up in a cold sweat from his nightmare about how his home town was burnt to the ground. It was something he had been trying to forget but it was simply burned into his memory **(Would Yang be proud of that pun?)**. The young Faunus decided that while it was early who would start getting ready for initiation.

Deciding to have a little fun before that though he jumped from the rafters where he had been sleeping and landed on the ground without a sound. However instead of standing up after he simply faded into the shadows.

If someone were awake and paying close enough attention they would be able to see a bodiless shadow moving through the sleeping students, being careful not to interact with any other shadows until it eventually stopped next to Sylvia's shadow.

You see Shadow's semblance dealt with the manipulation of mass in regards to a shadow. It allows him to either add mass to a shadow and use it as a weapon or transform organic matter into a shadow so long as he has direct contact with his target, although if his targeted organism let's go of him or is no longer in contact with him while a shadow, they will almost always die. While being a shadow he's also able to fully interact with another shadow which is one of the reasons he's such an accomplished assassin, he could simply slice their shadow's head off and it will translate to reality. It's also through the use of his semblance that Shadow hides his Faunus features as well as his scythes which are a special case and are in fact organic, but that's a story for another day.

Shadow, in his shadow form **(Mouthful much?)** grabbed Sylvia's shadow's shoulder and shook it causing her to wake up rather violently looking around to figure out who had their hand on her shoulder. After about 30 seconds of her frivolous searching Shadow rematerialized himself behind her after removing his hand from her shoulder. "Hey Sylvia~" He whispered into her ear causing her to whip around trying to slug him although he jumped over it and she hit her brother, who rolled into the other sister from the force of the punch, waking the two of them up.

Sylvia then looked up to see the assassin trying his best not to laugh although he failed miserably whenever he saw the pout from the silver haired girl in front of him, but that stopped as soon as Lazarus punched him on the back of his head which made him preform his own pout which was something that made both Sylvia and Eve laugh rather loudly, waking up almost everyone else in the room thanks to the butterfly effect.

What started as a joke from Shadow had evolved into the wakeup call for all of the first year initiates, which was actually rather impressive but alas Shadow still needed to get something to eat. "Sorry about that I honestly didn't mean to wake you all up… It was only supposed to be Sylvia here, so I apologize once again. However… I'm off to get breakfast while it's still there… Bye~" and with that said he sprinted off with lots of people following his example but none more so than a strange girl with orange hair shouting something about sloths… three guesses who that is…

20 minutes later

Breakfast is now over and the initiates are on their way to the lockers to collect their weapons and to prepare themselves for the trial that awaits them. The Valentines had to go the other way to get to their lockers which left Shadow alone while he went to his locker to grab his swords.

Whenever he arrived to his locker he couldn't help but snicker at Ozpin's obvious attempt at humor, although since he snickered was it really an attempt..? Anyway his locker number was 666, clearly a joke but also if people were to know who he was then they'd probably say that it's not too far from the truth.

While the assassin was busy readying his gear he didn't notice the white haired girl who had just finished talking to Pyrrha Nikos, a champion fighter from Mistral, walking towards him. Unfortunately however, this was the moment he decided to turn around "Oof." The girl said as she fell to the ground with Shadow landing on top of her with one hand next to her head and the other on her breast.

For a second Shadow almost thought it was Sylvia that he was now in a rather intimate position with before he noticed a number of differences. Difference number one: This girl's hair had a bluish tint to it. Number two: Her eyes were an icy blue that shouted superiority. And after an accidental grope, number three: …She's flat…

The girl was red with rage as she pushed him off of her "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" she screeched "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?" Whenever Shadow shook his head in the negative it only served to infuriate her even further, evidenced by the fact that she was reaching for the rapier at her side "I AM WEISS SCHNEE! YOU WILL APPOLOGIZE TO YOUR SUPERIORS!"

The moment he heard her name Shadow lowered his head to the point where his bangs covered his eyes and his (manly) ponytail fell over his right shoulder. He remained silent for a couple minutes before he spoke but when he did everyone around turned away, a few people even cowered in fear behind the tone he was using "Ah now I know who you are…" Weiss suddenly began to question whether or not she made the right decision picking a fight with the boy in front of her "Weiss Schnee, daughter of Jacques and Jasmin Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation, well known for their discrimination to Faunus and to a lesser known extent their questionable business partners…" Shadow was originally going to try and go the entire year without revealing that he was a Faunus but he decided to reveal his ears and tails getting everyone to gasp "Also any self-respecting person would only consider someone a superior after they've earned it." He finished with a glare.

With his small rant over Shadow once again hid his tails and ears and walked away leaving behind about 40 stunned students along with Weiss questioning why it is that two people had pointed her family's view points on the Faunus in the past 24 hours, it wasn't that bad to treat animals like that right?

Although nobody noticed it a tall, black haired girl was watching the Reaper as he walked away now noticing that his shadow had tails. While she was pondering this a voice spoke through the school's speakers _**"Would all applicants please report to the cliffs for initiation? Again, all applicants to the cliffs for initiation, thank you."**_

" _Whatever, I'll think about it later"_ the women thought to herself before she left for the cliffs as directed.

At the cliffs

All of the applicants for Beacon were currently lined up on steel plates along the edge of the cliffs that drop down to the Emerald Forest. Shadow was placed next to Sylvia and her siblings for the launch. There was chatting amongst the applicants but that stopped whenever Ozpin cleared his throat.

*Ahem* "I welcome you all to the initiation for our Academy." The headmaster was no longer sounding distant like he had been the night before, something that made Shadow smile knowing that he was the cause for it "In this trial you will be launched into the Emerald Forest below us, you must use your own landing strategy to land safely, or deal with the consequences of falling 120' straight down. Any questions?" he asked. Immediately a hand shot up from a tall man standing next to Eve. He had orange hair and blue eyes and was wearing armor with a bird design on it. The headmaster simply ignored him "None? Good. Now I know you've probably heard a lot about partners, well let me put arrest to any questions you may have. You're partners will be assigned… today."

The vast majority of the potential students were now looking around mumbling about who they'll be partnered with. Ruby on the other hand was now freaking out. Glynda continued from where Ozpin had left off "After you land, your partner will be the first person you lock eyes with. They will be your partner for the next few years as you study here." She said.

"Indeed, once you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest, there you will find some ruins that contain relics. You must collect one of these relics and return here to succeed in this trial. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path… or you will die." Ozpin said. Although something he was not expecting was that over half of the people there walked off of their platform and left.

Once everyone who was leaving had left, students began being launched into the forest one by one, starting with Ruby. Shadow gave a smile to Sylvia just before he was launched.

Shadow took a moment to appreciate the feeling of flying through the sky and also to scan the area for the ruins. While he was falling however, he saw the Valentine siblings all falling together, they looked down at him and smiled while leaning towards him to drift through the air.

As for the assassin's landing strategy? He simply used one of his swords to dig into a very tall tree. The Valentines used Sylvia's whip blade to wrap around one of the tree's branches while the others held onto her.

All was going fine as Lazarus and Eve climbed down the tree… until they saw Sylvia's whip pull the branch it was tied to off the tree, taking the white haired girl down with it. Fortunately for them Shadow was near the bottom of the tree and he caught her.

"Just dropping in?" he asked her with a smirk which made her face go red while he just laughed "Although I guess we're partners now eh? I was hoping I'd end up with you."

Just as she was about to respond Lazarus jumped to the ground, breaking their little moment apart "Alright break it up, you two can flirt with each other once we're back at our team's room." He said sternly which made of them blush and do their best to deny it. Of course that only served to further entertain Lazarus and Eve.

Although Shadow had a peculiar thought for someone in his line of work _"Maybe, just maybe, with these three I'll be able to start a new life… but us as a team huh? What would we be called…?"_ He shook his head of that thought since it didn't really matter to him "So guys I saw the ruins while I was falling it's actually not all that far from here, I'll take point since I know where we're going but make sure to keep on guard, I've heard there's been a lot of Grimm activity lately in these parts." He said receiving accepting nods from his companions.

As he led his friends (and someone with potential to be more than that) through the forest Shadow couldn't shake the feeling of dread that something was going to go wrong. The problem was that Eve and Lazarus hadn't stopped bickering since they started walking, seemingly confident that there would be no Grimm that would attack them and while Sylvia wasn't bickering like her siblings, she was only looking forwards.

The group continued on like this until they reached the ruins. "So which one are we picking? I say we take the black knight." Eve commented after seeing the relics, which were indeed chess pieces.

The piece they had selected unnerved Shadow ever so slightly but he couldn't exactly argue since Sylvia had already grabbed their piece along with Lazarus doing the same. "So… what now guys?" he asked the Valentines.

Sylvia immediately sat down and said "Well, I, for one am taking a break." With the others simply shrugging at her suggestion so Shadow decided to take a look around.

On his little adventure around the ruins Shadow noticed a few things, one the clearing it was in seemed to originally have buildings covering it and, from his observations, were burned down some time ago judging by the moss and large amounts of ash present on the stone walls. Shadow silently frowned, being reminded of his own house in Sombra before the fire. He had also identified the ruins themselves as being the remnants of one of the houses.

Coming to a door he decided to investigate the inside, although once he entered he wished he hadn't. Around him were multiple burned photos, pieces of furniture as well as two bodies in the corner of the room but that wasn't what made him regret entering the house. No what changed his opinion on being there wasn't the bodies or burned memories but the one, single photo that wasn't singed black.

It was your standard family photo. Two parents, smiling lovingly with their child in between them. The father was a very handsome man with short black hair and two fox ears on top of his head along with a tail to match popping up behind him. The father also had deep purple eyes. The mother on the other hand could very well be the very description of beautiful. Deep blue eyes, white hair that reflects the light almost angelically. She too had two fox ears as well as a tail gracing her body. Her smile would make anyone happy, including Shadow, had it not been for the child in the center of the two. Short black hair, black fox ears with white tips, 9 tails with the same coloration as his ears and silver eyes.

Once he saw the photo it was clear to Shadow that this was in fact, his own home, at the moment he was currently in the remains of Sombra. He would have broken out into tears had it not been for the scream of terror that came from the front where his future team mates were sitting.

Shadow immediately snapped out of his sorrow and sprinted outside. Only to be met with the sight of Lazarus being torn apart by a rather large Beowulf, Eve trying, and failing, to fight a Deathstalker which promptly stabbed her through the stomach, killing her instantly and Sylvia running towards him even with an Ursa on her tail.

Shadow drew his blades and prepared for a fight, silently noting the fact that there are 8 Beowulfs (including the one that killed Lazarus), just the one Deathstalker, 3 Ursa one of which being an alpha and 6 Creeps, while Sylvia made her way behind him.

The second she did he began his attack slicing through the Ursa that had been following his last remaining team mate with practiced ease then spinning around to slice a Creep that had been attempting to get behind him.

Shadow continued his assault by dashing at the remaining Creeps that had all gathered together and began slashing away at them.

Sylvia could do nothing but watch the brilliant display of beauty and power. _"It's almost like he's dancing to the rhythm of battle… I'm not sure if I should be relieved that he's protecting me, or afraid that he can decimate all of these Grimm without a scratch…"_ She thought as she watched him begin to kill the Beowulfs after leaving nothing but the masks of the unfortunate Creeps that had fallen prey to his wrath.

Shadow finished slaying the Beowulfs and decided to move on to the Ursa, killing the young one with just a single slash. He then began his assault on the alpha. The large monster took a swift swipe at him which he dodged with a low flip to the side, only barely clearing the claw as he slashed upwards, placing a large gash in the monster's chest. Shadow followed this slash up with another and another and another, until he had sliced the alpha in half after extending his blades' length using their shadows, effectively doubling the blade length with no extra weight.

The assassin's final target was the Deathstalker but as he turned to see it he momentarily stopped. There she was, Sylvia, with her stomach pierced by the tail of the scorpion-like Grimm. The moment he got back in action he let out a shout that could be heard all the way in Vale and the Deathstalker, had it been capable, would have been surprised that it no longer had a body except for a tail that was now disintegrating. Shadow accomplished this by using the weaponized shadows created by his swords' Teslas.

He sprinted to catch Sylvia as she fell from the now none existent tail. Once she was laying in his arms he noticed that she was still breathing, although it was clear that there was nothing he could do to save her "No, no, don't leave! This is all my fault, if I had just been quicker I could have saved you! DAMNIT! WHY'D IT HAVE TO BE YOU! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!" Shadow was now breaking down into tears as he placed his head on her chest.

Sylvia's voice was raspy and every time she coughed some blood came with it but she still said "Don't *cough* worry about this, *cough cough* it's not your fault. *cough weez* Hey, I just noticed… * giggle cough* our team name would have been Team LESS, *giggle cough* kind of ironic right…? *cough* you know Shadow… I lo- yo-…" The second she stopped talking Shadow could see the life leave her eyes, Sylvia, an innocent girl with a life to live, had just died in his arms covered in her blood and the blood of 18 Grimm, 5 of which that were fairly strong for their species.

He was so caught up in his mourning he didn't even notice that 8 other hunters had just walked into the clearing to retrieve their various relics or the battle they'd had just a couple minutes ago. His battle had occurred while the other teens had broken off into groups to fight a Nevermore and another Deathstalker, in fact they had even talked to the Valentines before they left so coming back and seeing 18 Grimm masks of various shapes and sizes as well as the bodies of the three siblings, one of which being held by a person they could only assume committed this massacre against the soulless monsters, who was completely unscathed though covered in blood, was rather shocking to them.

It was very hard on Ruby and Yang because they had actually gotten to know the three victims the night before and it was their first real experience with death. Ruby managed to withhold her discomfort however whenever she noticed just who it was that did this "SHADOW!" she shouted as she ran to him and instinctively pulled him into a hug from behind. She didn't even care about the fact she was getting blood all over herself, right now all that mattered was her first friend in Beacon other than her sister.

While her hug did provide comfort to him and he tried to tell her what happened here, and where here was, he found that he couldn't speak a single word. The shouting that he had done earlier had damaged his vocal chords, so he simply resolved to laying Sylvia's body down and returning his only remaining friend's embrace while silently sobbing into her shoulder.

 **BREAK**

-Written words-

 **BREAK**

Later

It was now nearing the end of the real entrance ceremony, where the teams are announced and those who succeeded were all cheering for joy as professor Ozpin was announcing them, all except one.

"Yang Xiao-Long, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Ruby Rose, you all retrieved the white knight piece and will now be known as team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose! Congratulations to you all!" He said after the previously mentioned girls had come up onto the stage, all of them receiving claps and cheers from the other students.

They quickly walked off of the stage and returned to their seats as Ozpin continued with the last person who passed "Shadow Vulpis? Could you please come to the stage?" he said with unnoticeable sadness. He had intended for Shadow to escape his past here and had inadvertently brought him to his childhood home while the majority of his friends got slaughtered outside. Yes, he had watched over Shadow while he was inside the house and it almost broke his heart to see him in the state he's in now.

Shadow only nodded form his spot as he began walking up the stairs all on his own causing quite the number of gasps from students as well as one team, team CRDL, to try and stop themselves from laughing at his misfortune.

Once he had gotten to the stage he stood next to Ozpin, took out a dry erase board with a marker and wrote –Yes Professor?- which caused even more people to gasp and CRDL to actually start laughing.

Ozpin sighed and looked at Shadow apologetically "I know this must have been hard on you, returning to Sombra, your childhood home, after the fires and losing your friends to Grimm, and your mourning damaged your vocal chords as well but you did return with the black knight piece and therefore you will be a one man team. Is that alright?" he said.

Shadow nodded and wrote on his board again –Kind of an ironic piece though eh? Well whatever so long as I have my own room and a piano I'll be fine-

Ozpin laughed ever so slightly but everyone in the room still noticed it and said "I think we could arrange that." While everyone cheered for the willpower of the now mute assassin, it takes a lot to continue down a path after watching your friends die after all.

 **There you go, I kinda had the feels myself whenever I was writing about the photo in Shadows old house as well as when I was, in my opinion, rather ruthlessly ruining Shadow's hopes for his team. Also that was what I was hinting at last chapter. If you align their names up from oldest to youngest (Lazarus, Eve, Sylvia, Shadow) it spells out LESS so yeah, Team LESS. Oh and I've decided on whether it will be a harem or not and the answer is… Kinda? I mean two girls isn't technically a harem, nor is it a single pairing so I kinda just leave it as its own category. As for who the second person is… it's up to you! I'm putting a list here that will function as who you can vote for and I'm sorry for those of you who want Nora and Weiss, but they were removed from the choices due to how I wound up planning things. Oh yeah, never mentioned it but yes Shadow can play the piano.**

 **Onto the options:**

 **-Blake**

 **-Neo**

 **-Emerald**

 **-Coco**

 **-Velvet**

 **So yeah there's your options so vote away, CYA!**


	5. The First Day

**And I'm back this chapter didn't take as long as the last one because, well… I didn't spend 3 days trying to write a freefall that wound up being like 3 paragraphs, I know sad. But anyways the winner of the little mini-poll will be announced at the very end. I was asked after the last chapter why the masks stayed after Grimm were killed and to be honest it was only to satisfy my need to prove they existed in the first place as well as explain why the White Fang are capable of wearing them. Also this chapter will be mainly be for introducing JNPR and the remainder of team RWBY.**

 **I don't own RWBY Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth do.**

"Talking"

-Written Words-

" _Thinking"_

" _ **Announcement"**_

" **Menacing Voice"**

After the Ceremony

Shadow was now making his first of many treks to his dorm room which, after 'talking' to Ruby, he discovered was right across the hall from theirs. He had also met the final member of their team and from what he could tell, they would get along just fine.

Blake was a relatively tall girl with a slender frame that was built more towards agility and stealth than it was for strength. She had black hair, yellow eyes and, although she tries to hide it with a black bow, two cat ears as well. He hadn't really been paying much attention to the clothes that she had been wearing but he did notice the way that she was eying his shadow.

He had also reacquainted himself with Weiss, much to his displeasure, although she wasn't nearly as bad as she was this morning so he decided to just chalk her up as bearable.

Casting his thoughts aside the hunter-in-training noticed he was at his room, so he unlocked it with the scroll Ozpin had given him just before the ceremony. Upon entering the room Shadow understood just how fast Ozpin could work.

Inside, the room was rather large with light gray walls and a hardwood floor. As for furnishings, it was all set up. There was a kitchen, a bed, a desk with an alarm clock, a table with 5 chairs for guests, a washroom with a shower (Something Shadow was thankful for), a large bay window and, his personal favorite, a piano in the corner of the room. He also noted that the room was soundproofed.

Deciding that the unpacking of the very few things he had with him could wait until the morning he jumped straight into his bed, which felt like he was landing on a cloud, closed his eyes and went to sleep early so he could be ready for his first day as a student.

2:30 am

Shadow woke up in a cold sweat, he'd just had another nightmare. This time however, it was a new one. He saw his parents as they burned alive, the Lazarus and Eve as they were brutally murdered by the Grimm and Sylvia… Sylvia being killed by his own scythe. Her eyes as the life slowly faded from them and the look of hatred on her face as he ran his scythe through her heart. Needless to say it really shook him up judging by the tear that was now on his cheek.

" _Come on Shadow, it was just a nightmare, you didn't kill them… You just weren't fast enough, strong enough… Ugh I'll just play the piano for a bit and then go and train…"_ He thought as he took a seat at the orchestral instrument, not noticing that he had left his door open a crack earlier when he came in or that someone was currently awake to hear him from across the hall.

When he began to play it was easy to tell that it was a song meant for his fallen friends.

 **[I recommend listening to a piano version of the song "A World upon Sadness" since that's the song that he's playing]**

Team RWBY's room at the same time

Ruby Rose hadn't been able to sleep after getting back from the opening ceremony, and by extension initiation. The reason for that is simple, she had seen the corpses of three of her friends, all brutally killed by Grimm, and her remaining friend that was now all alone covered in blood. Sure she comforted him but it was still quite a terrible thing for anyone to have endured.

She also knew something that she was pretty sure no one else knew, she knew that they were at his childhood home. You may be wondering, but how? Well, before they left she had used her semblance to investigate the ruins and had also seen the photo of Shadow and his family as well as the two skeletons. She made the rest of the connections herself.

Though all in all she was awake because she was worried about the boy across the hall from her, and would have continued to do so had she not suddenly heard a piano being played from across the hall.

" _That must be Shadow!"_ She thought as she listened to the flawless playing of the assassin _"It's so beautiful and soft… but also sad…"_ While she was listening she soon found herself falling asleep.

But before she did she had one last thought _"I promise I'll be there for you Shadow, I promise…"_ and she fell asleep.

6:45 am

Shadow was now getting back from his morning training. He had done a few simulations with his scythes on the highest difficulty and was now holding second place on said simulation with a time of 6:42:76 **(Minutes: Seconds: Miliseconds)** for all 300 simulated enemies of various types. He also took note that the best time ever was held by Professor Ozpin with 6:39:32, pretty much only three seconds faster.

Shadow knew he would be okay to use his scythes without being seen despite the fact that the recordings from every simulation were able to be seen by the teachers was for three reasons, one: The teachers already knew about who he is. Two: He set up barriers at all of the entrances to prevent people from seeing or entering. And three: the one time he used his scythes was only the last time and he was moving very fast.

An interesting thing to note was that Shadow now held positions 8-24 on the hardest difficulty with his swords.

Back to the present Shadow was now taking a shower showing the plethora of scars on his body, some deep, some shallow but there was one that was deeper than all the rest. This scar looked more like a stab wound than a slash like the others. The scar was positioned over his heart and while he was looking at it he couldn't help but reminisce about how he acquired it.

 **Warning! This flashback involves the after effects of abuse, man I should just change the title to "Dark Subjects with Shadow" like seriously twice in a row this story was not supposed to be this dark yet…**

 _Flashback_

 _A 14 year old Shadow was currently running across the rooftops, searching for his next target. It had been 4 years since he began his work as an assassin and he had just gotten a tip on where he could find his next target. When he got to the location he saw something he hadn't expected and that filled him with rage._

 _There in the balcony with him was his target standing over a little girl his age with a rapier. The girl had long pink and brown hair with white streaks in the pink side. Her eyes were heterochromatic with one being pink while the other is brown. She was short and thin, creating a more diminutive aura around her. What enraged him however was the dead women, probably her mother, which was on her left as well the fact that she was covered in cuts and bruises._

 _As the man was about to stab the girl to finish her off, Shadow quickly moved in front of her. While he got stabbed deeply, it didn't quite reach his heart so he was able to kill the man by pulling him into the shadows and simply letting go of him as to not further upset the girl whose life he'd just saved._

 _Despite his injury Shadow removed his jacket which, at the time, had been a white formal jacket due to the fact he was currently in Atlas and it would look less conspicuous than lots of other things. The assassin gave the girl his jacket which was much too large for her, which was a good thing in this case since her clothes were in tatters, barely able to cover anything. So she quickly put it on. Shadow smiled seeing the relieved look on her face and asked "So, what's your name?"_

 _His question startled her slightly but she decided to answer him, though not the way that he'd expected –Neopolitan, but you can call me Neo.- She wrote in Shadow's blood that had spilled to the floor –Thank you by the way, he killed mother and was hurting me…-_

 _Shadow just frowned at her "I'm sorry Neo, I was too slow. If I'd been her faster I could have stopped him…" he said to the young girl who shook her head._

 _-Don't worry, I'll be fine… but could I get your name?- The ice-cream themed girl wrote._

" _Of course Neo, my name is Shadow but nobody can know that okay? People know me as the Reaper so you can't tell anyone my name because it could get me in a lot of trouble, despite the fact that I'm only killing people like that man who did this to you and your mother." Shadow replied gesturing to her mother's corpse._

 _Neo nodded to keeping his identity a secret and Shadow smiled while he was wrapping his wound with bandages._

 _After that the two of them were together for quite a while before he introduced her to a friend of his named Roman Torchwick who agreed to take care of her for a while._

 _Flashback end_

 **Dark Part Over**

Shadow smiled remembering how he met and saved Neo's life before he left her to Roman. He'd followed them through the news just to make sure that they were doing the right thing… well as right as you can be as professional thieves and deep-cover spies for an assassin in arguably the world's most dangerous organization…

Shadow got out of the shower, got dressed in his uniform which was a simple black blazer and pants along with a white dress shirt and a red tie, made his breakfast, which was bacon and eggs and surfed the web for what Roman and Neo had been up to lately since it had been a while since he'd done so.

While he was reading the news he was so engrossed he didn't even notice what time it was until he actually checked, only to see that it was 8:55.

He quickly grabbed a notebook and a pencil then bolted out the door and closing it behind him.

He'd just started making his way down the hall whenever he noticed something coming up behind him so he smirked and instinctively grabbed onto the object which just so happened to be Ruby's hand.

Now that he was in contact with her she began pulling him along and they made it to their Grimm studies course taught by Professor Port in about 30 seconds. The pair quickly smiled at each other and took their seats next to each other. Although Shadow was still depressed he would not let that get in the way of enjoying his school life, especially with someone like Ruby.

In all honesty Shadow really liked her, she was kind, smart, creative and a fellow scythe user. Plus she was the person who comforted him after the Valentines' deaths. At the moment she was his only friend at this school as well. While he liked Yang and Blake, he wouldn't exactly call them friends yet.

About 10 minutes later the remainder of team RWBY arrived along with team JNPR. The members of JNPR include Jaune D'Arc, a blonde, shaggy haired boy with blue eyes that was pretty tall and has muscles to show that he had been training hard in his life, he was also the leader of the team. Nora Valkyrie, the girl from the day before with orange hair and blue-green eyes, all and all she was very attractive. Pyrrha Nikos, three time Mistral champion with red hair and green eyes, she was rather tall for a girl and was definitely a fighter based off of her build. Finally, there is Lie Ren, a boy with long black hair that has a magenta streak in it, an odd choice but it worked with his magenta colored eyes. He was even taller than Jaune and held a calm aura with his body being built for flexibility.

"I see you are all late… well it's the first day, take your seats and let's get started." Professor Port said to students that had just walked in. The WBY of RWBY sat down next to their leader while JNPR got stuck in the front row.

"Monsters, demons, prowlers of the night. Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names. But I prefer to call them prey." The professor began.

Although after that his lesson was just him telling stories of his past and how he became a hunter, thus everyone slowly dozed off no matter how hard they tried, all except for Shadow.

He raised his hand once he saw that Weiss had finally fallen asleep, seeing his professor nod he began to write -Professor Port? This lesson wouldn't happen to be about maintaining awareness no matter the situation as well as teach us the disciplines required for a hunter?- Seeing Port nod he erased his board and continued -While I do agree that a hunter should be honorable in public, I believe that on the battlefield one should be ruthless while maintaining a strategic mindset as to protect their comrades as well as the people.-

Professor Port could barely contain his surprise that the only person who ever figured out his lesson's goal on their first day, was a notorious assassin. After getting over his little bout of surprise he nodded to Shadow's analysis and then spoke louder than before so he could wake up the sleeping class "Thus, a true huntsman must be honorable! A true huntsman must be dependable! A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated and wise!" He said while winking at Shadow, silently congratulating him on his identification for his true meaning, who understood the gesture "Now, is there anyone here who believes they possess these traits?" he questioned and Weiss' hand immediately shot up while Shadow just smirked at how she thinks she's so much better than everyone else.

"I do sir!" the heiress exclaimed as she stood up as well.

"Well then, why don't you get prepared for combat then come down here?" The professor requested.

Weiss nodded and then left to get changed and while she did Peter Port looked towards Shadow who understood the gesture. Even though everyone else was now very confused.

It only took Weiss a couple minutes to be prepped for battle and she was now standing on the platform along with Peter who had gotten a Boarbatusk from… somewhere… Anyways she drew her rapier and dropped herself into a fencer's stance but kept adjusting it, something that Shadow found rather entertaining; she claims to be better than everyone else and yet she feels that being perfect in her stance means that she will be perfect everywhere else in a fight.

Professor Port drew his blunder-axe (?) and held it over the cage "Are you ready Miss. Schnee?" he asked skeptically while observing the same problems with her stance that Shadow was. He sighed silently after seeing her nod, why couldn't she just accept that she is not yet ready for this? "Alright, now be careful while this is a young one, it is still a Grimm. So it can, and will, kill you if a chance presents itself. Or in this case it might hurt you since I will do my best to prevent it from killing you." He said and as he finished he sliced the lock off the cage holding the Boarbatusk, thus setting it free.

Weiss began facing off with the Grimm taking thrusts at it even though she continued to miss. Seeing her partner's difficulty with the arguably easy task Ruby decided to give her advice "Weiss! Aim for its stomach, it has no armor there!" she shouted.

Weiss thanks to Ruby's suggestion attempted to flip the Grimm over by hitting its tusks upwards, though she miscalculated her aim due to trying to maintain her stance and got her rapier stuck in the Boarbatusk's tusks, which led to her getting disarmed by the beast which then knocked her to the ground and prepared to run her through.

The overconfident heiress covered her eyes and prepared for the end, only for it not to come. When she opened her eyes again she was speechless at what she was seeing, along with the rest of the class in fact.

There in front of her was Shadow, holding two rapiers made of shadows, crossed in an X pattern and holding back the Grimm's attack. She looked down and noticed that his feet were in no stance whatsoever other than simply spreading them apart with bent knees. She then watched as he threw the Boarbatusk to the side while doing a side flip with his swords held out, cutting the Grimm multiple times and actually landing before it did as he then skewered the beast with an upward thrust.

The entire class was awestruck at the skill shown by the black haired teen who simply dispelled the swords back into the shadows where they belong.

The Faunus offered the girl a hand up which she slapped away because she didn't want her pride to suffer any more than it already has. Although by doing this she got a disappointed sigh from her teacher which confused her until he spoke up "You see Miss. Schnee, this was a test to see if you were adaptable in combat and while you have a very versatile semblance, and you didn't use it once instead relying on your fencing from your 'perfect' stance. If you didn't notice Mister. Vulpis didn't even have a stance and was more of flowing with the battle instead of trying to force it his way like you did. If you don't change that mindset, it will get you killed. Try to remember that Miss. Schnee." He said before he turned to Shadow "As for you Mister. Vulpis… good work, it is clear that you possess an adaptable mind and have put lots of effort into your training, there were no wasted movements in your fighting. You will make a fantastic hunter someday!" he concluded.

Shadow, pulling his dry-erase board out of seemingly nowhere wrote –Thank you, I've had a lot of practice before coming here. Even though I've never gone to a school before…- Port could only laugh at the expressions on the faces of the students when they found out that he never went to a school before.

Just as Port was about to continue the bell rung signaling that classes were over **(There was only one in this story since it was day 1)**. The students began walking out of the class Shadow noticed Weiss stomping towards Ruby, so he changed his course towards her as well.

"Ruby you dolt! Your shouting distracted me, you could have gotten me killed!" The heiress scolded the silver eyed girl who was trying not to tear up at her accusations.

Suddenly the young girl felt a comforting pressure on her hand despite no one being there so she collected herself "I was just trying to help you Weiss…" Ruby said to her partner as Shadow materialized from the shadows while holding Ruby's hand.

Letting go he took out his board and started writing –You know Weiss, I'm tired of your attitude… she did help you after all, considering she's the one who told me to step in, and if you didn't raise your blade like you did you would actually be dead.-

Once Weiss saw the board she got even angrier, but changed her target to Shadow "Yeah?! Well what do you know?! You're just a filthy Faunus! Besides… Ozpin made a mistake appointing Ruby as the leader, she's just a pathetic child who got luck-" The second she finished her head suddenly turned as she could feel a stinging in her cheek. Looking up she saw Shadow with all his features revealed, and his arm outstretched. He'd just slapped her.

He immediately began writing on his board in the smallest letters he could so it would still remain legible –Look Schnee, you can say whatever you want about me, but don't you ever talk that way about Ruby or my race again, you will regret it. Also I don't think Ruby's a bad leader, you on the other hand would make a terrible one. The reason for that is simple, you would command your team, not lead them and that only ever leads to the death of the entire team, trust me I know. So don't try to change the leader, try to change yourself to be the best teammate possible. Now I need to blow off some steam, I'll be in the simulation arena for a while, bye Rubes.- After a quick wave to the young leader who he left his board in her hands facing towards Weiss he turned and walked away.

Both Weiss and Ruby read the words on the board and while Weiss broke down after reading it Ruby was just shocked but she smiled anyways because he defended and supported her. Seeing that Weiss needed some time to herself after what Shadow had written she left to go deliver his board back to him, and to see him fighting seriously.

Weiss just remained on her knees until she heard a slightly familiar voice from behind her "He was right you know, about everything. He has more experience than any other student in this school whenever it comes to fighting. It was his life so you'd be wise to take some pointers from him, after all he is only 3 seconds behind my best time on the hardest difficulty for the simulation training… for now." After those relatively cryptic words Ozpin walked away from the heiress leaving her once again to her thoughts.

Simulation Observation room

In the observation room, which was effectively just a steel blue room with a glass window overlooking the simulation room and a couch, Ruby was watching Shadow while he was going all out at the hardest difficulty.

In all honesty she only knew because he was using his scythes and it was clear to her that he was on a whole different level of scythe mastery than her. There were no wasted movements, no missed swings and no 'survivors' all of his strikes were designed to kill in a single hit.

Now just so you know Shadow knew that Ruby was there and had actually let his fellow scythe wielder come in to watch since he was just finishing up.

So there she was watching as he decapitated the final simulated Grimm ending with an aggravating time of 6:39:42. Considering that this was her first time watching a simulation Ruby thought that was an average time but oh was she proven wrong. When the records and placements came up she saw that he'd been only 10 milliseconds behind professor Ozpin, the number 1 spot.

Looking down the ten positions that showed up the times and names were as follows from 1st to 10th: 6:39:32 Ozpin, 6:39:42 Shadow Vulpis, 6:42:76 Shadow Vulpis, 10:48:69 Summer Rose, 10:48:72 Raven Branwen, 13:00:04 Qrow Branwen, 13:00:05 Taiyang Xiao Long, 13:48:22 Glynda Goodwitch, 14:00:00 Shadow Vulpis, 15:55:81 Shadow Vulpis.

Ruby was surprised to see the large differences between Shadow's times and the times of her mother's team (+ Glynda) and silently wondered why the differences were so large before she almost had a heart attack from the man who had appeared behind her " The differences is Shadow's times were created by him using his scythes instead of swords, as for the difference between us and everyone below the 3rd position… well my time is coming from my attempt this year instead of when I was in school here and it just happened to be my first time in over 15 years, while your mother's team's times came from their third year here at Beacon and Shadow… well he's been fighting for most of his life though I expect he'll be telling you more about that shortly since he let you see his scythes." Ozpin explained.

Ruby gave a nod of comprehension before she asked him a question that she'd been wondering ever since she saw the times "So who would win? You or Shadow if you both went all out?"

Ozpin rested his hand under his chin for a few moments before he pulled his scarf down, showing Ruby the scar he received whenever he fought Shadow almost a week prior "If this scar is anything to go by, Shadow would probably win… Although this was my fault for not approaching a scared child properly…" He said which made the young leader's eyes widen while the headmaster adjusted his scarf and left, giving her the time to think about what he'd just said before Shadow snuck in behind her and covered her eyes.

"Gah! Shadow stop!" She squealed as he started tickling her with a smile. He stopped soon after that so Ruby handed him his board with him nodding in thanks.

Shadow simply wrote –Come to my room tonight at 10:30 pm, I'll explain my past and Ozpin's scar to you there okay?-

You see Shadow had been thinking about telling her since he woke up earlier this morning from his nightmare and had resolved to tell her after his little exchange with Weiss.

"Okay, I'll be there." The silver eyed girl said happily.

Shadow looked at her for just a moment then he once again put his board to use –Are you sure? This will probably completely change how you look at me.-

Ruby just nodded once again and after brief farewells were exchanged the two split ways preparing for the conversation that would happen later that night.

 **So there you go that's the chapter and I personally really liked it. Now for the second person in the pairing**

…

…

…

…

…

 **It's Neo! She won by 3 votes and for everyone trying to count the votes, I got quite a few votes through PMs. A consolation prize for the second placer Blake will happen though so be ready for that. I also thought of pairing names for them for no other reason than having something to do while I was editing this chapter, originally it was A LOT darker. So pairing names: Ruby x Shadow: Scythes and Silver, Neo x Shadow: Silent Company. Don't worry about how they will be together by the way, both girls will be okay with it. Other than that you now know that Roman and Neo are actually friends with and spies for Shadow… although Neo won't be for much longer. Also Weiss got her reprimanding by Shadow instead of Professor Port this time. Anyway look forward to the next chapter in who knows how long which will include the revelations from Shadow to Ruby and her reactions. Cya next time!**


	6. Revelations

**So… this chapter should have been written like, 3 weeks from now but I decided to just say: Fuck scheduling! From now on I'll write where I have a muse and while I'll try to alternate my stories it will not always happen. Anyways this chapter might be a bit shorter than normal since it will only really be covering three things. Also in case anyone thought I was hating on Weiss, I wasn't she's actually my favorite character in RWBY, what I was doing was teaching her a lesson so I don't have to write her as a complete bitch for very long. Although you can look forward to Neo making an actual appearance as well as Shadow's revelations to Ruby and her reaction… I'll leave it at that. Anyways I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

 **I don't own RWBY Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth do.**

"Talking"

-Written Words-

" _Thinking"_

" _ **Announcement"**_

" **Menacing Voice"**

5:30 pm

If one were to look up from the courtyard of the Beacon dorm building tonight they would see Shadow sitting there, just watching the sunset. In fact someone did see him, the only person he wouldn't have expected to come to see him after noticing him, Weiss Schnee.

The heiress worked her way through the near mazelike halls of the dorm until she found the staircase to the roof. Steeling her nerves she began walking up the spiral stairs feeling her feet get heavier with every step but she pushed through it, after all it was just her nerves right?

Well that was only part of it, Shadow had seen her glance up at him from the courtyard and nod quickly to herself so decided to vanish into the shadows and follow her. So while Weiss thought she was being hesitant it was actually Shadow testing her resolve to talk to him. After about 6 steps he smiled to himself despite being in his shadow and let her continue unhindered while he quickly made his way back to where he'd been before.

Once Weiss made it to the roof she saw Shadow wave her over with a smile and his board out. She decided to follow along with his gesture and sat down next to the boy who had just finished his writing, it read –So… have you figured out what the lesson I tried to teach you earlier was?-

Weiss nodded and began her explanation "Mostly, I have it narrowed down to three possibilities. The first being humility, the second being not to be too quick to judge and the third is that I need to be more open and laid back." She said before turning to meet him eye to eye "So which one was it?" She asked.

The Reaper once again began writing on his board although he did it in a way that Weiss couldn't see it until he finished and when he did Weiss was shocked by what she read –Sure, whatever you say. I left that entire thing open completely to interpretation, so what you just did was actually do a self-inspection about the things you don't like about yourself, all I did was guide that. The real lesson was to find your own. That means both lesson and path. It must have been hard being Jacque's heiress. Just remember, unless you give me a reason your Weiss to me, not the Schnee heiress.-

Once Weiss finished reading his answer she started to tear up, she hadn't been expecting an answer like that and now she saw the black haired boy in a new light. He obviously wasn't just some normal student to her now, he was just too experienced to be normal, and if he was to be trusted, it wasn't from going to a school. _"Wait… then where did he get his experience from? There's no way he lived out in the woods right?"_ The sobbing heiress thought.

Shadow just watched her cry for about a minute before he had some shadows form a rapier in his right hand. Then, with his other hand he tapped the girl on the shoulder and showed her his board –Come on, we have an hour before I need to go prepare for a serious conversation with Ruby so stand up. Let's teach you how to use that rapier of yours.- it read making Weiss confused but she stood up and drew her blade regardless, only now noticing the shadowy rapier in her new teacher's hand as he dropped into a comfortable looking stance.

Weiss tried to follow what he did only to find that it felt really weird to her. Shadow who could see the discomfort on her face stood up straight and walked right over to the heiress, knelt down and began adjusting her stance which made her more than a little uncomfortable judging by her massive blush.

When the Reaper was finished she noticed that her stance didn't look perfect anymore, but felt it. She could feel the balance of the stance which let her cover the majority of her previously unguarded areas and maintain the mobility to move out of the way of an attack.

Smiling at his student, Shadow dropped back into his own stance and they dueled while frequently being stopped so Shadow could teach her how to make her strikes flow instead of being jerked around robotically for the next hour before Shadow stopped her and informed her that he had to leave now but that they could do this again should she desire to, which she quickly accepted.

While Shadow was walking back to his dorm he was lost in thought _"I'm glad she found her own lessons from my scolding her earlier, it means she's not as far gone as I thought she was. Now then, tonight may be my last night here but I have to do this… I have to tell Ruby everything... or at least most of it, she doesn't need to know about who my targets worked for, just that they're the bad guys…"_ When he was done with his thoughts he realized that he had already made it to his room. Upon walking in he immediately walked to his piano and began playing to calm nerves that he hadn't even realized he had.

10:30 pm

Ruby Rose is not someone who you'd ever expect to see with the serious expression she was wearing right now while she stood across the hall from her fellow scythe wielder.

Ever since she had 'talked' with him earlier after his simulation battle, she had been mentally preparing herself for what may be revealed at this very hour and if she had to be honest, she still wasn't ready. The expression on Shadow's face whenever he showed her the whiteboard saying that it will probably change how she saw him had that effect on her. She was honestly afraid that she will have to cut ties with her first friend that actually understood her and her quirks, not even her sister did that after all.

Realizing that all this thinking will probably just going to make her even more nervous than she already was, she opened the door… only to hear the same masterful playing of the piano that she'd heard the night before and a sight of something that she would have never expected.

There, playing the piano was her fellow weapon nerd, Shadow Vulpis, completely oblivious to everything going on around himself which included the closing of his door and his new arrival.

Ruby almost forgot what she was doing in the room due to the mixture of peaceful music and seeing the relaxed face of her friend. It was something that put her truly at peace for just a moment before the boy stopped playing and finally noticed his guest.

Sighing, Shadow closed his piano and retrieved his whiteboard as well as his marker. The first thing that he wrote on his board read –So Ruby… the first thing I need to ask is how much do you know about the Reaper?-

While initially surprised by the question Ruby quickly answered with a vague idea of where this conversation is going "Oh, that's the assassin that appeared about seven years ago. They gained their name after two things were reported about them from an unknown source, the first was that they made all their kills using a scythe and the second being that they always wore a mask similar to a skull. Other than that I know that they don't kill indiscriminately like everyone thinks they do."

Shadow sighed _"Please don't hate me…"_ he thought as he began writing once again. This time he hesitated to show her the board.

Ruby noticed this and decided to solve his mental struggle for him despite being afraid as well, and when she did, she realized that he was right, this would change the way she thought about him. It read –Well that's me… I'm the Reaper, but please let me explain… I don't want you thinking I just did what I did because I'm a bad person…-

Ruby just stared at the board, partly in shock, partly in confusion about not being a bad person despite being an assassin when she got another shock, a drop of water fell to the board, then another, then another. It didn't take her long to realize Shadow was crying.

" _I knew it…"_ he thought after seeing Ruby's reaction _"She thinks I'm a monster… well she's not wrong but I just wish that, she could give me a chance… I don't want to lose any more friends... I guess I really am a monst-"_ He didn't get the chance to finish that thought though because he suddenly felt a small pair of arms wrapped around him.

He looked down and saw that Ruby was hugging him tightly as well as the tears on the whiteboard that is now sitting on the ground. _"What?! She still cares about me? I'm a monster! A murderer! Why doesn't she hate me?"_

Ruby however defied all of the assassin's expectations once again "You aren't a monster, at least not to me… If you were you wouldn't have stood up for me or mourned the loss of your friends… I heard your playing last night, it was beautiful…" she said which made Shadow finally drop the last wall he had up against the girl and returned the hug with tears now streaming down his face although this time, they were tears of joy.

"I'm sorry…" she began getting a confused look from the boy "I took a look around the ruins after initiation… that used to be your house didn't it? Those were what was left of Sombra… and your parent's died in the fire didn't they?" She finished.

" _How… Does she know that it wasn't natural?"_ He thought.

"What do you mean it wasn't natural… wait…" Ruby started before she looked incredulously at Shadow who was sporting the same shocked look.

" _Wait… can you hear my thoughts...?"_ Shadow's reply came in the form of a nod _"How is this possible, this is neither of our semblances... Whatever, that's a question for another time, to answer your question, a women whose part of effectively a terrorist organization burned my home down while laughing, thus unnatural… A few years later I met her boss, although I didn't know it at the time, and almost got recruited by her but a kind women wearing a white cloak found me while I was thinking about my decision and exposed what the boss had done as well as the fact that she was responsible for the burning of my home._

 _After that I began digging and put together a list of people assisting these terrorists… and I silenced them… That's why I'm an assassin, I still have one more target before I'm done as an assassin, the women who started it all, Cinder Fall… Oh and I should probably thank you for beating the shit out of Roman, he's a deep cover spy for me so you just made it more believable, I have another spy named Neo but she'll be leaving that very soon."_

Ruby took a moment to digest the information she'd just received before she noticed something "Wait, you mentioned a kind women in a white cloak, did you see anything else about her, or catch her name?" she asked.

Shadow thought back to his encounter before he realized he did get two details about her _"All I know about her is that she had to leave her family and had silver eyes like us. Why?"_ he replied.

Ruby only looked at him with a smile and tears of joy in her eyes "I think that might have been my mother. I thought she was dead… but if who you saw really was her than maybe I'll see her again someday…" she said.

This time it was her turn to be surprised though when Shadow pat her head, kinda like a dog, and 'said' _"Well, I'll help you find her Ruby. Until then however, we need to get some rest-"_ Shadow was about to kick Ruby out of his room before he saw her pulling the puppy dog eyes on him so he did the only thing a man could do in the face of such an adorable adversary, give in. _"Do you want to stay here tonight?"_ he asked through their ridiculously convenient mental link.

Ruby just nodded yes but then she got a strange feeling in her stomach whenever she saw his faint smile, mentally deciding to ask Yang about it tomorrow. Still she cautiously reached towards his fox ears, that she just noticed had been out this entire talk, and began stroking behind them.

The response was instant, however embarrassing it was for the assassin, he began leaning into her touch and despite his inability to speak, managed to let out a short "yip" almost like a sneeze but… not… causing Ruby to stare at him like he was a pet. _"Don't do that again… please… (No matter how good it felt)"_ he 'said' to her, silently thanking the gods that he figured out how to hide certain parts of his thoughts from the silver eyed girl. **(That's the brackets BTW)**

Ruby pouted once again but quickly stopped when she yawned adorably then rubbed her eyes while checking the time. -1:28 am- it read. She then instinctively made her way to the only bed in the room and plopped herself down on it, causing Shadow to mentally chuckle before he laid down next to her and wrapped her in his tails to keep her warm before he fell asleep himself, it had been a long day after all.

With Neopolitan and Roman

Somewhere in a storage room with hundreds of wooden crates all labeled –Fragile- in large red letters there are two people currently discussing what their next step is.

The first person was female and although she didn't look it, she was 17. The girl was about 4' 10", and that was with her white and black high heeled boots, which reached to her mid-calf, on. She had long hair pink and brown hair that had white streaks through the pink half. Her eyes were pink and brown but seemingly switched every time she blinked. As for her attire, she was wearing a modified white suit jacket with a pink collar and cuffs. The jacket cut off in the front and sides just above the center of her torso, the rest of her torso being covered by a brown corset that was curved to expose her hips. She wore brown pants held up by a brown leather belt with a silver buckle as well as a pair of black gloves and multiple black necklaces strung around her neck in a mess. In her right hand she was carrying a large pink umbrella that contained a concealed sword in it.

The second person was an older male that had slanted, dark-green eyes and bright, long, orange hair, with long bangs covering his right eye. Black eyeliner traced his visible left eye. He wore a red-lined white suit with long black pants and black shoes. His accessories included a small gray scarf, black gloves with buckled sleeves, and a black bowler hat with a small feather tucked into its red band. He also carried a cane.

"So Neopolitan… I heard from the boss yesterday that he got accepted into Beacon… He's asked if I would be willing to part with my favorite partner while he's there. Now, I don't particularly mind but I wanted to ask if you wanted to go to Beacon with him?" The man said to the girl, now identified as Neopolitan, or Neo for short.

Neo took out a dry erase board along with a marker and wrote in very large letters –YES, CAN I GO ROMAN?!- The short girl had a very excited look on her face and was practically jumping on the now identified man.

"Of course Neo, I won't keep you from your crush, just make sure to find him before you apply to Beacon so Shadow can help you in. Apparently he's on good terms with Ozpin." The orange haired man teased making his partner blush and nod while Roman texted Shadow to meet Neo in Vale tomorrow at 'Junior's Bar'.

Neo put away her board and began to pack up all of her possessions, excited to see her savior and crush once again as well as finally getting out of Cinder's organization.

 **Well there you have it, Weiss is already on her own path, Ruby's opinion on Shadow did change but in this case for the better, Summer is alive (And before anyone says "But what about her grave, that kinda proves she's dead…" No, it really doesn't… They say she never returned from a mission and is simply presumed dead… so yeah… Anyways after that Neo made a full appearance, Roman's OOC and Neo's on her way to Beacon… Give you three guesses who her partner will be. Also I'm sorry but I honestly couldn't find the words to describe Roman so what I did was I just slightly modified the description that's on the RWBY wiki. So yeah that's all I have to say about this chapter but if you have any questions, comments or concerns let me know, leave a review or PM me, I'll do my best to answer you. Cya!**


	7. Announcement

**Well, here we are once again with me putting up a chapter as an announcement for why I haven't been updating.**

 **This time it's because I've been working more shifts the past month or so and because of this I barely had any time to write. So I've decided that I'm going to put my current three stories on hold. I know, I know, I will keep writing a bit so whenever I come back it will probably be with more than one chapter. Otherwise I'm going to start a fourth story soon.**

 **You may be thinking: What? Why put three stories on Hiatus because you're busy just to start another one? Well the answer is simple. In the three that I have going right now I'm trying to plan everything out so that cannon will happen with at least some semblance of sanity, but for this new one cannon would barely be possible to begin with, which is why there will be very little semblance to it.**

 **Now you may be wondering just what this story will be like so here it is. I'm going to be writing a crossover story with Kingdom Hearts and Highschool DXD. Yup that's right! One of the five-soon to be six-written. I got the idea for this whenever I was playing Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. After I finished the game I just sat there and thought "Hmm… I wonder what would happen if Roxas were to meet Aqua?" (She's my new favorite female character in the game, previously it was Naminé) and from there it stemmed to, "That could be a cool idea for a story but it might be a bit boring to just drop Roxas into BBS, not to mention it would be hard to write interactions between Roxas and Ven. Besides I've already read a story that does exactly that and they did an amazing job, so now I feel that I wouldn't be able to do it a justice. I could get Aqua into 358/2 Days but she wouldn't really fit…" So I decided to move both of them into a completely different world that has quite a few similarities to it… DXD.**

 **I mean come on, both Keyblades and Sacred Gears just appear out of nowhere and are bound to your soul so why not?**

 **At any rate the first chapter for it should be out by next Tuesday if my normal writing pace persists.**

 **Final note on my new story it's going to be a single pairing (Three guesses who the couple will be…) and Issei will be present but on the side, I figure Roxas wouldn't like him very much…**

 **Anyways I'll get back to actually writing so you guys don't think I've abandoned any of my stories. Cheers All!**


	8. Bye

So life's been a piece of crap lately and well... I've decided that I'm going to stop writing as a way to take some of the strain out of my schedule. I'm taking down all my other stories too by the way. I'm going to keep the files for if I ever get back into writing but for now this is the end of my writing... Sorry everyone...


End file.
